Summer Snapshots... #3 - Grow your social network

Think for a minute about the types of professional development available within your school, or perhaps your larger regional network (BOCES districts for us NYers). Is it more like a delivery system or collaborative network?

In a large district, there might be the luxury of having multiple teachers per grade level or subject discipline. Schools might employ their own curriculum coordinators, instructional technology coaches or department chairs tasked to organize professional learning teams/networks (PLT's / PLN's). A collaborative network like this requires a critical mass of educators all working together toward common goals; if not, the "delivery system" method of PD is what we tend to experience.

In the North Country, we need to broaden our reach outside of our local buildings and collaborate regionally. One easy start is to enhance our own professional development by building an online professional learning network. Because it's done virtually, this requires taking a leap - often an uncomfortable one - into the world of social media.

Here's a great post about using social media for professional development (as well as the etiquette and housekeeping involved in doing so).

Start small; Google+ and Twitter are easy to get started with. If the thought of posting and commenting scare you, it's OK to remain a "listener" as you gather up others' great ideas.

Google+ (Google Plus)



If you've never explored this social network, now would be a great time, because there is a great local upstate NY presence.

Google+ Communities are moderated groups of people all gathered around common interests. Currently, over 300 upstate NY educators connect with each other on Google Plus. All you have to do (once logged in) is request to join this local community (GEG Capital Region Upstate New York). Not only do they have great EdTech ideas, they often advertise local events, workshops, and conferences. It's nice to hear what other educators are doing in our area.

Google+ Collections are posts curated about a topic all by one person, and you can request to "follow" the collection. There is a great GAfE Collection by Michael Fricano II, an EdTech educator from Hawaii (also follow him personally for other EdTech collections and ideas - +Michael Fricano II)

Twitter

New to Twitter? Not sure if you know your #hashtags from your @mentions? Twitter can seem confusing to a novice, but you can use it completely anonymously for a while until you get used to the way it works. You can follow other educators and groups on Twitter (I've also included some Google+ links for those who are on both sites) and search hashtags by subject without ever having to post a tweet of your own. Once you get comfortable with that, start "liking" or "retweeting" posts and you will build yourself a nice stream of information that you can easily refer back to.



Follow other educators and groups on Twitter (often also on Google+):

Carol LaRow @larowc +Carol LaRow
Alice Keeler @AliceKeeler +Alice Keeler
Matt Miller @jmattmiller +Matt Miller
Brad Currie @bradmcurrie +Brad Currie
Christine Pinto @PintoBeanz11 (also #GAfEforlittles - especially for primary education)

Google for Education  @GoogleForEdu (also #gafe) +Google for Education
GAfE Help @GafeHelp

Hashtags sort and link all of the posts that are related to the topic following the # (hashtag). Just enter the hashtag in Twitter's searchbar and check out all the recent posts. There are some pretty popular ones used in the education community and some even have specific "chat" times where people will all tweet and discuss resources at a given time (you don't have to actively tweet, just view the posts). #edtech, #edtechchat, #gafe, #gafesummit are just a few; here's a comprehensive list (start exploring by your subject/grade/content level, too!).

So jump in; what are you waiting for? The best part of a professional learning network is that you don't have to be the expert all the time (you're too busy for that, anyway!). Be a curator of good things: the tips, tricks, and new ideas you want to try in your classroom. In the back of your mind, remember that the ultimate goal with building your digital PLN is that you'll begin to pull in other educators in your school and region. Wouldn't it be great to have a North Country Google Educators Group someday??